Thursday, May 22, 2014

"Tracking New York's downfall," one froyo place at a time, the site puts together Google Streetview images of city locations before and after they were taken over by frozen yogurt shops.

"It was a photo shop," reads one entry, "and now it’s a fucking fro-yo place!" "It was a local bar," reads another, "and now it’s a fucking fro-yo place!" "It was a bodega...and now it’s a fucking fro-yo place!"

You get the gist. To quote from Manhattan, "It's pithy yet degenerate."

The lost places aren't all winners, but that's not the point. The point is that the streets of the city are being taken over by monoculture--chain stores, banks, condos--and the froyo place has come to exemplify a certain strain of this banality, one that is multiplying like a virus.

I lived in NYC from 88 to 94 and worked in SOHO. I was looking at a map of W. Broadway and Broadway between Prince and Spring and thought I was in my local suburban mall. American Eagle Outfitters, really? What happened?

Holy shit. I mean, you know it's happening and it's fucking disgraceful, but when you see it all together like this its truly depressing. Like, seriously folks -- who actually eats so much of this shit? I mean I've had Pinkberry in my Yorkville hood, like a few times the past few years, it's not terrible or anything, sometimes you want some yogurt and some fruit -- no biggie -- but how much of it can people actually eat? Like yeah, maybe 1 or 2 joints or summat in an entire 30 block radius, that seems reasonable -- but every single block in the East Village?? It seems beyond idiotic. Who's letting these shitholes multiply like this? It just doesnt even make economic sense........NYC has completely lost it's mind at this point.

Which begs the question, is this all that yuppies eat? Otherwise there's no reason for there to be so much of one kind of food in such close proximity to one another. Expect the obesity rate to rise if the trend of sugar factories outnumbering actual restaurants occurs.

Hi Mr. Moss. I love your blog. Love it love it LOVE it. I check for new posts every morning before I get into my own email.

I’ve noticed something however. In the many instances of shops closing where the tenants, owners, co-owners and soon-to-be-ex-customers are quoted and named, the person(s) responsible for increasing the rent are rarely talked-about or mentioned. I keep stumbling over phrases that seem to gloss over who is raising the rent and why. After reading three or four blog posts in a row, it can start to feel like “the rent” is a sentient entity that rises of its own volition.

“We hear the vendors’ rents might go up”

“The rent had tripled”

“The rent has been hiked to an insane $50,000”

“The rent has gone up from $15k to $34k a month"

“Will be closing due to a rent hike”

"Saw its rent increase to nearly $40,000 per month”

“The new asking rent was 50 thousand”

“After the rent was increased from $24,000 a month to $33,000 a month …”

Who are these rent hikers? They have first and last names, right? Aren't the names of building owners part of the public record?

What if, and this is not a criticism, there were a good faith effort to give equal column space to the names of the rent-hikers and perhaps get a comment or two from them?

Seriously there is an essential unfairness when Alan Sklar of Alan’s Alley Video is named and quoted while the landlord responsible for suddenly pricing his shop space out of the neighborhood is referred to as “the landlord.”

Anyway, let me say again that I'm not intending to criticize you. I guess I'm just so exasperated at the relative anonymity that NYC's building owners seem to enjoy.

The one on 2nd near 6th Street is mostly empty whenever I walk by on weekdays. They get some business at night and weekends, but considering the rents they must be paying I can't see how they can afford this long-term. There's a Gelateria place a few blocks north with the same kind of 'activity', rarely see more than a couple of people in there. I certainly wish them luck, but won't be surprised if most of them will be closed once the original investment money runs out.

I recall when a lot of the places we needed, deli's, show repair, etc...disappeared in the mid 90's and became coffee / espresso cafe's until those places failed due to the competition with each other. These trend businesses are opened by people with little business experience but have some money to set up shop but not enough for the long haul. A neighborhood can only support so many of these places until the weaker shut. Remember this when the next wave of shit businesses take over the once fro-yo shops of the mid-teens.

I want authenticity in my life and manhattan no longer offers me that.

I find myself enraged on a daily basis as I walk the streets amongst some of the most boring, vapid, gluttonous and materialistic bubble headed suburbanits even my worst nightmares could have ever envisioned.

I had the sad duty of cleaning out a friends apartment in staten island who had passed away recently. I had only been out one time in 30 years and that was brief.

But let me tell you I met in my day long trek out there some of the most authentic, salt of the earth people I have ever met in new york.

The real deal. And as little we had in common as i had with them it was so refreshing to meet some real people in a real community.

I want that again. Whether I have to move to the mountains of new england or a tropical island I need to get the fuckout of this nightmare that new york city has become.

I used to think I could hold on to the few remaining things that made new york so great and that would suffice but I find myself incensed 24/7

This is a little off topic but the same holds true in the NJ suburbs I now inhabit. (Hey I lived in NYC for 10 yrs & I still work here everyday so I'm in the loop) Every new little business is a fro-yo place. They're like cockroaches.

Jeremiah -quit your bitching and dont go there. Its that simple. I personally dont like Starbucks so guess what I dont go there. But all you people reminiscing about 'old new york' while simultaneously enjoying your 4.95 oganic chai lattes and gulping down cronuts is really aggravating..

i havnt read all the comments. but im wondering if these excessive chain places are a tax writeoff?? i mean if there are say 200 fro-yos, maybe 130 have success, then the other 70 are write offs. what im seeing is there is not much "normal" life anymore. looks as if its about transients. meaning tourists, or just people walking by. maybe students who want to quick snack. there are few goods& services which are "normal". this btw, is world wide. mostly everything is distant & estranged. everyone is cmplaining from london to mexico. same story. not to mention that the mainstream eat garbage, buy $100 Tshirts, have too much to say. the corps have taken over the world. call me a conspiracy theorist, but they rule. the sheeple follow. its a way to distroy the indivual, from the mom&pops to your thoughts.

this poison chemicalized yogart thing (cotton candy) seems to have been around for a long time. i miss good old fashioned coffee shops & diners. i would always have a healthy lunch. a place to sit, maybe just have a coffee & fruit cup. then stop @ a laundry to pickup some wash. then later to a fish store to get something to cook. if i didnt cook, then there was always a takeout from the coffee shop. what happened to convenience? seems we LOST out luxury. normal life was luxurious. now its about: poor folks stopping @ mac donalds&7-11, rich folks reserving a table for a $80 dinner, tourists stuffing the froyo or going to applebees. welcome to the brave new world.

@ 4:09 - took the words outta my mouth. As a born & bred NYer I'm starved for a real, brief conversation, interaction or a 'hood shop or two to call my own. Not gonna happen. Now lookin' for a city that still has that & is willing to fight to keep it too.

I remember back in the 80's when practically every other store was a Bennetton. I used to count them going up Third Avenue and got up to ridiculous numbers just there alone. Then in the 00's they all became Starbucks and it was once again a saturated overkill of a cookie-cutter suburban type chain store. While this is not new in NYC it is happening more and more to the exclusion of anything else. Pretty soon everything will be a mall chain store. Bo-ring, and very sad.